“This revised and expanded edition of The Iowa Precinct Caucuses: The Making of a
Media Event offers new chapters on the 2000, 2004, and 2008 precinct
caucuses and their impact on candidate fortunes. The feast of details served up
by Winebrenner and Goldford reaffirms the adage that Iowa is important because
it goes first rather than being first because it is important."—Emmett H. Buell, Jr., emeritus professor of political science, Denison
University

“This continues to be the
definitive analysis of the Iowa caucuses in the presidential nominating
process. Winebrenner and Goldford
update the coverage to include the three presidential campaigns in the 2000s,
while providing a balanced take on the origins, influence, and pros and cons of
the Iowa caucuses. Is this any way to nominate a president? Probably not, but
this book is the way to understand this key aspect of the process, warts and
all."—Walter J. Stone, professor of
political science, University of California, Davis

“Terrific. Whether you’re a first-time visitor or
making your regular trek to the unique world of Iowa presidential politics,
this is a must-read guide for the political traveler. Full of details on the
voters, candidates and media, Winebrenner and Goldford show how and why Iowa
does what it does.”—Steven Thomma, White House
Correspondent, McClatchy Newspapers

Although some people refer to Iowa
as “flyover country,” presidential candidates and political reporters in the
national press corps have no difficulty locating the state every four years at
the beginning of presidential primary season.

When Iowa Democrats pushed forward
their precinct caucuses in 1972, the Iowa caucuses became the first
presidential nominating event in the nation. Politicos soon realized the impact
of Iowa’s new status and, along with the national media, promoted the caucuses
with a vengeance. The Iowa Precinct
Caucuses chronicles how the caucuses began, how they changed, and starting
in 1972 how they became fodder for and manipulated by the mass media. Hugh Winebrenner and Dennis J. Goldford
argue that the media have given a value to the Iowa caucuses completely out of
proportion to the reality of their purpose and procedural methods. In fact, the
nationally reported “results” are contrived by the Iowa parties to portray a distorted
picture of the process. As presidential primaries have grown in the media
spotlight and superseded the parties’ conventions, Iowa has become a political
proving ground for the confident, the hopeful, and the relatively unknown, but
at what cost to the country?

The third edition of this classic
book has been updated to include the elections of 2000, which saw the first
winner of the Iowa caucuses to reach the White House since 1976; of 2004 and
the roller-coaster fortunes of Howard Dean and John Kerry; and of 2008 and the
unlikely emergence of Barack Obama as a presidential contender.